Six things

Tagged by NSLS, here are six weird things about me...hopefully these are not all things I've already told about myself.

1. I like prunes. I think they are a tasty snack, and I keep some in the cabinet all the time. I also think that the effort to improve their image by calling them "dried plums" is a bit silly.

2. I don't have a TV, and haven't for 10+ years. I've commented on that here before, and I really don't think it's all that weird, but apparently some people do, and they've given me flack about it. One person told me I'd never be a good preacher w/o a TV because I'm too out of touch with popular culture. Others (more than one) have hinted that I'm warping the Kid's life by raising him sans TV. News flash: he still knows quite a bit about TV and there are worse things I could do to him!

3. I would just as soon not have a car if I could avoid it. I loved the three years I lived in the city and didn't need one. I wish I could live some place where I could walk or take public transportation again. Or at least be able to mostly get by without a car. I don't have to drive to work now b/c I live next to the church, but I must drive to do anything else.

4. I have no interest in owning real estate. When I was younger I dreamed of having a big old Victorian house and fixing it up, and while I wouldn't mind living in such a house, owning it is no longer an ambition. Perhaps it is financially imprudent of me, but I am happy just to rent (or live in a rectory as I do now).

5. While Yankee doesn't remember movies, I don't remember music. The Kid constantly says to me, "Don't you know [x, y, or z song by someone whom he's sure I should know like Led Zeppelin or something else from that era]?" and 99% of the time I am clueless.

6. And while NSLS can watch things over and over, I like to read the same books over and over. I read my favorite books multiple times--most of Madeleine L'Engle's books, all of Harry Potter, Herman Wouk's Winds of War and War and Remembrance, Gail Godwin's Evensong are good examples I reread books when I am tired and stressed--it's comforting somehow.

I'm not tagging anyone specific, but feel free if you're so inclined....

Next up: my interview questions from Profgrrrrl-not Katie Couric.

Confession

I sat down around 5 pm last night to watch 24, just for a little while. And I sat there and watched eight episodes. Yeah.

My only regret is that it will be a few days before the next set gets here from Netflix. OTOH, that is probably a good thing....

Snow

I knew snow was forecast for today, but I didn't take it very seriously because we've had so little snow this winter, and just a bit was forecast. But it was snowing heavily when the Kid had to leave for school, and he's still coughing a lot (his asthma, asymptomatic for 2+ years, seems to have reemerged with this cold) so I drove him to school. Apparently the roads dept. didn't take the forecast very seriously either, because nary a plow or salt truck was in sight. When I got home I got the camera and watched the snow fall...

(If you click on the pic of the sparrow below you can see a single seed in his/her mouth).

42/365


43/365


44/365


45/365



46/365

On being a sausage and other random bits of Friday

~This blog has felt very much like a sausage to me lately. I feel like I have nothing interesting to say, and I haven't even managed to post a picture every day, even though I was really excited about the prospect of doing so. Truth is, I feel in a bit of a rut. I've been accomplishing a fair amount at work, but when I'm home, if I'm not working on something for work, I'm not very productive at all. Maybe it's just the February blahs....

~And today I seem to have caught the Kid's cold..actually I caught it yesterday. I could feel it coming on; I did an early service with a group that meets each week for Eucharist and breakfast, and we had a wonderful discussion, one that energized me when I went into my office to catch up on end of the week/get ready for the weekend details. Mid-morning I started sneezing and I realized that I suddenly needed a nap very badly. I felt better after I ate some lunch, but by mid-afternoon I was dragging, so I came home. And today I have mostly languished on the couch blowing my nose and watching The Vicar of Dibley.

~Which I can watch because I finally joined Netflix. I haven't had a TV in ages (10 years) and I don't go to the movies that often. So I decided to catch up on some things I've missed. In my queue I have the first seasons of Grey's Anatomy and West Wing and I've got the first episodes of 24 here waiting for me to watch. Yeah, I know I'm still waaaaaay behind. Probably always will be, but that's okay. (Feel free to make other recommendations of things I should see).

~After several years of being a flexatarian/ selectatarian/ semi-vegetarian, I decided to give up all meat for Lent--not because I see it as a hard thing to do, but more because it's just a good time to do something I've been thinking about for a while. But tell me, vegetarian readers, what do you do when you're feeling blah and a good bowl of therapeutic chicken soup seems in order? That contingency I didn't anticipate.

~I've spent far too much time this week reading press releases, pastoral letters, emails and blogs about all the goings on in the Anglican Communion. And I am heartsick. I will spare you the details (they are readily available on line if you're interested) but as a Christian and Episcopalian of the progressive sort, I am heartsick over the position the Episcopal Church has been put by the Primates, who in my view want to make the Anglican church something it has never been. The price for unity may be too high for us to bear.

~I haven't been to my favorite city in almost a year, and I long to go. I have some time off after Easter, but as luck would have it (and because my boss is oblivious to such issues and scheduled time off without consulting me) the Kid doesn't have the same week off that I do. I may just have to go without him...

~I may fix another cup of tea and take my computer to my bed and watch 24...or just go to sleep early...hopefully I will feel better tomorrow, because I have to work tomorrow afternoon and evening.

Saturday morning

40/365 ~~Sermon prep


I don't usually write in the dining room, but the kitchen table isn't back in place yet--still waiting for the rest of the finish work and painting on the window...The angel wind chime belongs in the kitchen window, too, instead of hanging from the chandelier.

41/365~~Sunlight

Collection

38/365


39/365

Because I got nothing else going...a meme

As seen at Scrivener's place....

A- Available or Single?--um, is that a choice? I mean, how different are they? Okay....maybe they are different. I am definitely single. Available? Depends....
B- Best Friend?--she who shall remain nameless here
C- Cake or Pie?--pie--peach, mincemeat, blackberry, key lime....
D- Drink of Choice?--diet Lime Coke, or iced tea, or a decaf latte, or a cup of Earl Gray, or a cold beer or a nice glass of wine...
E- Essential Item? --my computer and my camera
F- Favorite Color? --purple and blue are tied for this one
G- Gummi Bears or Worms?--neither. Gah!
H- Hometown? --wherever I live at present (although I guess that's a theoretical answer, because not where I live right now), or the last place I lived. I've moved too many times to consider one place my "hometown"
I- Indulgence? --chocolate; paying someone to clean my house
J- January or February?--they aren't that different!
K- Kids and names?--yes, I have kids, and yes, they have names. I won't tell you what they are but I'll give some hints: One has a name that sounds the same as mine, but is spelled differently; one has a name that is also a place in England; one has a name that is also something that pumps oil; one has a name that rhymes with the 40th (I think) president.
L- Life is incomplete without...? --family? Friends? Books?
M- Marriage Date?--nada
N- Number of Siblings? --three
O- Oranges or Apples?--both/and not either/or...although I'd definitely take orange juice over apple juice
P- Phobias/Fears?--flying, snakes
Q- Favorite Quote?--I have a number of quotes I like from Einstein and Gandhi. Here's one: I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent~~Mahatma Gandhi
R- Reasons to smile?--lots
S- Season?--fall, winter, summer--spring is severely lacking in New England
T- Tag 3 people? --you, you and YOU
U- Unknown Fact About Me? I've told an awful lot about myself here already. What do you want to know?
V- Vegetable You Hate? -- raw carrots. Really. They make me gag.
W-Worst Habit?--procrastination
X- Xrays You've Had? --dental. Lots of dental x-rays.
Y- Your Favorite Foods? --Indian, Thai, vegetables, chocolate,lemon
Z- Zodiac?--Sagittarius. But so what?

Single Bloom

37a/365

37b


37c


I've had this Christmas cactus for about 10 years. It came with the promise of abundant blooms, but with the exception of the year I bought it, it has bloomed very little. In fact the first few years it didn't bloom at all, and then it started blooming each year in March. When I wrote my application essay for seminary I used this cactus as a metaphor for my life: late-blooming.

I've been watching a single bud develop on this plant; this morning I caught it in the sunlight, and played with my camera and the light. Then this afternoon I caught the light from a different direction.

I love taking pictures, but the truth is, I don't know anything about what I am doing. It's all trial and error. I just got a new book on photography; once I get a chance to study it, we'll see if my pictures improve. I figure I can't justify buying a better camera until I learn how to fully use the one I have.

Shower Curtain

Because all the cool kids are doing it...

34/365

The Kid's bathroom...

35/365


My bathroom...

36/365


The guest bathroom.

Frozen

33/365


There's a small pond behind our house. During the summer it's impossible to get to it because of all the catbriars (I just learned what they were called) and other undergrowth. We really can't even see it in the summer. But in the winter it's visible from the kitchen window, especially now when it's frozen.

I've met someone who grew up in this house, and she says she used to ice skate on the pond some winters. Last winter the pond froze but it never looked solid enough to walk on. This year, even though until recently the weather was unseasonably warm, once it got cold it got really cold, and the pond looks like it is frozen solid. I'm still a bit nervous about trusting the ice. I mean , how do you know when it's solid enough to walk on? And I have no idea how deep the pond is. But the Kid has been dying to try it out, so this afternoon we walked back there. He didn't go very far out but it was pretty solid on the edges.

Moon at Daybreak

30/365

Because the wind chill was below zero this morning I drove the Kid to the bus stop. When I came back, I noticed how beautiful the moon was in the still predawn light. Within minutes it had changed to this:

31/365

and then this:

32/365

Window update

29/365


My window, as of today. Actually, it's been in this state since Tuesday night. I was hoping that by today they would've done the little bit of finish work that is required and the painting....who knows when that will happen.

I do love the window, though.

Lots of buzz about Harry Potter today....

28/365


But how many of you own this version? (Yes, I am truly a geek).